Nintendo Direct round-up – All the trailers and news

I’ve got a soft spot for the Nintendo Direct conferences that pop up every month. They’re humble slices of gaming news, stripped off all that Hollywood teaser jazz nonsense, and get right down to business. Nintendo didn’t stray too far from their usual conferences last night, but they’re certainly taking one or two game characters in unexpected directions.

Hyrule Warriors

It’s safe to say that no one saw this coming. The Legend of Zelda meets Dynasty Warriors, in which the green-clad hero will be fighting his way through scores of enemies. And it looks pretty damn good so far actually.

Super Smash Bros.

From a galaxy far, far away comes Rosalina, who’ll be a playable character in the game alongside her star-pal Luma. The game is still scheduled for a Wii U and 3DS release in 2014.

Mario Kart 8

Rosalina will also be playable in Mario Kart 8, which is doing nothing to urge my kart-lust thanks to that new trailer stealing the stream. Mario Kart 8 will also have a few new courses that include a desert track and an airport, alongside new racers Baby Mario and Baby Luigi. Oh, and there’ll be a few new vehicles as well such as quad bikes and UFOs.

NES Remix

The biggest surprise of the evening had to be NES Remix, which takes segments from 16 classic NES games and rejiggers them with new challenges. Imagine Mario Bros running to the left instead of the usual right or finding Link in Donkey Kong and you’d have a solid grasp on the remix formula here.

Sonic meets Yoshi, as the Hedgehog with a need for speed will have a Mario world themed level, complete with gold coins, flush pipes and those pesky piranha plants.

Dr. Luigi

The Year of Luigi continues on into 2014, with Mario’s brother ready to diagnose all your illnesses by shoving pills down your throat. At least that’s how I remember Dr Mario. New stages, new modes and of course an L-shaped pill join Luigi for a December 31 release.

Wii Sports Club

Wii Sports gets some new activities in the form of golf, which is slightly less boring when translated to consoles. Similar to previous Wii golf games, players can use a Wii remote to swing their club in tandem with the GamePad, which will be placed on the floor. Wii Sports will also be available in a trial version soon, which gives gamers 24 hours access to the game.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

DAMN KIDS GERROFF MAH LAWRN! Cranky Kong joins Diddy and Dixie Kong in the next Donkey Kong game, and he’s packing a few extra moves. Cranky can use his cane to attack and bounce off of foes, while collecting 100 bananas will allow players to execute the KONG-Pow attack which turns all onscreen enemies into items.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze arrives next year February 21.

Bravely Default

Next year on January 2, a free demo will launch for Bravely Default before it goes full retail in the USA. European gamers, get their hands on the title much, much sooner however.

Kirby: Triple Deluxe

Kirby is back in all new side-scrolling platformer, but with a few new 3D elements thrown into the mix. Move the pink blob (Kirby, not Geoff) into the foreground or background, and you’ll be able to dodge attacks and solve a few puzzles.

Kirby also has the new Hypernova ability, which gives him increased inhalation powers and swallows everything in his path. There’ll be 20 copy abilities on offer and two new game modes as well.

Chibi-Robo! Photo Finder

Chibi-Robo returns, and he’s got a night to spend at the museum, getting everything in order. Objects are needed to fill those historical wings up, and it falls to Chibi to do so with the 3DS camera and match items to their appropriate silhouettes.

The game lands next year January 9.

Pokémon Bank and Poké Transporter

Space is limited in Pokemon X and Y, but thanks to the magic of the cloud, players can store up to 3000 Pokemon in their own personal bank. The Poke Transporter will alllow them to move Pokemon from previous games such as Black, White, Black 2 and White 2, transferring them into the new X and Y games.

It launches December 27, comes with a free one month trial from launch until January 31 2014 and from then on will cost ya $5 a year. The bonus however, is that anyone who uses it before September 30, 2014, gets a free Celebi.

Yoshi’s New Island

Yoshi’s Island on the Super NES creative director Takashi Tezuka returns for an all new adventure starring the loveable Mario pet.

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